Wayne, > I just installed FreeDOS on a newly created FAT32 partition on my SATA > HD. The other partitions are in NTFS and running Windows/XP. Since > FreeDOS doesn't see XP it didn't edit my boot.ini. I have been trying > to code it myself with such things as: > > C:\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > D:\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > X:\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS" > > without any luck ... I also tried to use partition logic to rewrite my > MBR, but since it is a SATA drive, it is not supported. > > Can anyone help either with code for boot.ini or with a tool that will > rewrite my mbr??? PLZ?
I am the author of the UIDE driver, which is now part of the FreeDOS "base software" list (Thanks again, Jim Hall!). I still use an old V4.0 Windows/NT (1996) -- Saves me $250 every 6 months, and prevents having to put-up with Gates & Co.'s latest collection of new "bugs"! Win/NT loads itself using a "multi(0)..." statement in BOOT.INI with a similar format as you show above. Win/NT does this using its own boot sector, that becomes the "master" boot sector for all hard-disk "boots" (power-up, "pushbutton reboot", etc.). As Win/NT installs, it "discovers" that MS-DOS (mine is still V6.22 from 1991!) was also present, so it copies the original DOS "boot" sector to a file named BOOTSECT.DOS, which is the sector it loads when you select a line in BOOT.INI that begins with "C:\" (i.e. you want to "boot" from DOS). I have never used any later version of Windows, and so I do not know if they allow MULTIPLE lines in BOOT.INI that do not begin with some "multi(0)..." data, i.e. multiple choices for booting "DOS" systems. If they do, "Fine and Dandy"! If not, you may be STUCK with only a single C:\="FreeDOS" statement in your BOOT.INI file! You need to "examine" your Win/XP system to see if it does include a BOOTSECT.DOS file. To do this, you might need to reinstall MS-DOS, then install Win/XP after that, since "my nose" is telling me Win/XP may NOT create BOOTSECT.DOS if it finds no MS-DOS (and not FreeDOS!) as it installs! Gates & Co. are "famous" for such unfriendly items in their software! If you have no MS-DOS, try to find Wengier Wu's V7.10 MS-DOS "boot" diskette files, on the Internet -- Many users in China, and I, use Wengier's files, and they run O.K. If installing some variant of MS-DOS, followed by your Win/XP, does NOT give you a BOOTSECT.DOS file, Gates & Co. have "gone over" to some other scheme than what I have in Win/NT, and I cannot be of help you! If Win/XP does in fact create a BOOTSECT.DOS when it finds a "legit" copy of MS-DOS loaded first, you then need to copy the FreeDOS "boot sector" (512 bytes only!) into BOOTSECT.DOS for Win/XP's "boot" use. I use an old Norton DISKEDIT to "extract" the DOS boot sector -- You may need some other "scheme" to write the DOS boot sector to a file, then copy it over to BOOTSECT.DOS as above. I would be EXTREMELY "cautious" about loading Win/XP first, and then "cold loading" FreeDOS on top of it! This may make FreeDOS overlay the actual Win/XP "boot" sector -- NOT what you want! But it seems the REVERSE, installing FreeDOS followed by Win/XP, might cause THEM to overlay the FreeDOS "boot" sector with THEIR "own"! So you need to have a "saved" copy of the FreeDOS "boot" sector, install Win/XP, and then overwrite their BOOTSECT.DOS (if present!) with the "saved" FreeDOS "boot"! Complex, but it "Works for me!", and has for 15 years! Gates & Co. may not have designed a "general purpose" multi-boot for Windows/NT, but with some "knowledge and research", any DOS can be made to work! I hope this helps you! Jack R. Ellis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a definitive record of customers, application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-novd2d _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
